2.0 Feature Test: Disable All Splash Screens

As has been discussed amongst the development team, one of the handy new features in the PortableApps.com Platform 2.0's "Advanced Preferences" window is going to be an option to disable all app splash screens. All our launchers already let you disable the splashes individually by moving and editing a config file, but we thought we'd make it easier for the folks who want to disable them all.

So, to try it out now, just download [download removed, this feature is now built into the PortableApps.com Platform] and replace your existing StartPortableApps.exe in the root of your drive with it. It'll let the menu know to send the command to have the apps disable their splash screens.

Keep in mind, that this will only work for apps which have been updated to work with this new feature. Currently, that includes the most recent versions of SeaMonkey, ClamWin, VLC, Firefox, Miranda IM, Sunbird, Thunderbird, ConvertAll, Audacity, Warzone 2100, DOSBox, VirtualDub, DVDStyler, PeaZip, Songbird, FileZilla and AbiWord. This will not work for apps with their own built-in splash screen (Stellarium, GIMP, OpenOffice.org, etc), though we are exploring building that feature into our launchers as well.

This feature is built into the PortableApps.com Launcher 2.0 (the no-code way to make apps portable) which is debuting tomorrow as well.

As an aside, for the folks who wonder why the splash screens are still used, there are several reasons, but the most important three are:
1. To give instant feedback that the app is starting. Apps start *much* slower off flash drives. Firefox can take up to a minute to start off a lower-end drive, for example. And the splash screens don't slow down the app start, otherwise.
2. To let the user know that the app is repackaged by us. That way they don't go and bug Pidgin developers, for example, for a portability bug, since they know we put it together. We don't want to increase the support burden on the upstream projects.
3. They look really good

Well, that's about it. If you'd like to give this a try, please do. And let us know about any issues or other feedback.

FWIW, my personal reason for finding this useful is that I have the portable apps installed to the hdd to make it easy to sync app updates and settings from one primary to several secondary PCs. Since none of them run the apps from flash, the startup time isn't an issue.